Whooooosh!I My voice is missing...I lost it some time during the 2nd set at HOB and it’s still gone! It’s been a bit frustrating when seeing old friends and meeting new ones to not to be able to express myself beyond a whisper or a nod...
But anyways- it was a great time- FUN and the music & energy (especially last night) was tremendous!...
2PM finally got here! Everything was in order- Jase was here early to hang out with Sash & Noah till Scott came home...Left the house with no worries- a fine state of being after all the years of being (probably) overly concerned about leaving my young children behind...Nowadaze, Jase is a grown man out of college, Sash is a scholarly teen and Noah is likely thrilled not to have me on his case for day or two.. I was good this trip-only left behind a couple of items-one being Kemmie’s addy& directions!...I remembered the name of her street and as soon as I saw a nice parking space- I pulled over to phone her on my cell to find out her house number...No sooner pulled the phone from my purse, turning to Kemmie standing in front of the beautiful California Mission style home (with citrus trees!) I was parked right in front of!
A few moments later, we were off to San Jose Airport ...3 Cheers for ticket less travel! Bahs to having to remove shoes for security- I was wearing sneakers for this trip instead of the usual tevas or slip ons...
The flight was full, we couldn't find seats together - I sat next to the most beautiful young man, brown skin and black hair and eyes, the whitest teeth...Good Gosh, a British accent too! On my other side was a nice older lady...who asked if I was going to Disneyland..When I said, only out for a concert- The lady said “oh” and opened up a book.. the cutie asked if I was going to see ‘U2’..I am so out of it I asked “Are they in Anaheim already?” Hunh? Who? ...Of course, I ended up educating my new young friend about the art of Bobby & Ratdog....and that lead to talking about the UK and having a nice conversation about Bilston...At last, I found someone who knew Bilston!
Before ya knew it we were arriving at John Wayne Airport...found Kemmie and we headed on to the taxi stand and hoped the timing would work out with traffic and everything to check in, clean up and find the HOB before we missed our reservation! I called continuously over the week hoping to pick up dinner reservations and finally got a table for 2 at the exactly right time...I didn't want to lose them and the vip venue access they guarantee...We checked in to the lovely Annabella Hotel- about a 10 minute walk (everything was said to be 10 or 15 minutes away from everywhere else this weekend).
A good sign was seeing a few folks in a nearby room wearing RATDOG shirts! We got to our room and quickly pulled ourselves together..I wore my 2nd version of the Disney Minnies tee shirt I posted here a few daze ago..The new version has all the band members, each surrounded by a bevy of Disney Princesses - Cinderella, Pocahontas,Jasmine, Queen of Hearts, Cruella , Jessica Rabbit, etc....Theyre all there including Lady (without Tramp) and various Fairy Godmother types....Perhaps, I do have too much time on my hands? I feared I’d be thrown out of DownTown Disney, so I covered up in my black overshirt....Kemmie knew the way and had me jogging along to get there...I was way out of breath but relieved to see there was no extra wait for a table- I was still a little anxious and barely able to stop long enough to hug Cristine and Ben (I didn't know you were coming!!) In the walk to our table, I spotted all kinds of familiar forms in the head of the VIP line- it was exciting!!! Graceful and Russ found us in the restaurant and chatted with us till our food got there..Next, Adrienna was happening by and it was really wonderful to her again-even though we keep up online - it’s been awhile since actually seeing each other..I went with Adrienna and Arrow some years ago to see ‘The Saragossa Manuscript” at the Castro....Hadnt seen her since! Before we finished up, we ran into Reisha and I think EBeth & Tully.
We found the VIP line a moment later, there were my Friends- Dave & Hillary in line Right behind us!!
Dave is Scott’s oldest buddy from kindergarten daze. I met Dave when I was in high school- he was then the boyfriend of a friend of mine. That for me, is an old friend...The fact that the Grateful Dead was never Hillary/Dave’s “thing” except for when they were joining us for NYE ..makes it particularly special to know that they went out of their way to get to see Ratdog...We called Scott from the line! We enjoyed the line- met a couple of really nice women ahead of us...it seemed like a long wait..it was a warm evening and I kept thinking geez- I’m seeing Bobdog in Disneyland!!! The Magic Kingdom!!!
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